The Mystic Eight & The Nightmare Knight
by RPWickit
Summary: AU. When the eyes of the Mare of the Moon open, that's when, I, The Nightmare Knight will return and finish what I'd started... Those were the world spoken by The Nightmare Knight before she vanished. Now, the Mare of the Moon eyes are open and panic is starting to spread. It's up to a group of mares to save Queen Celestia's head.
1. Prologue: A Tale as Old as Time

_**O**_ nce a pond a time, in an era after the horrific God of Madness was imprisoned in stone, there were two mares who rule over the land of Equestria. A pair of sisters. Tia, the one who was beautiful as the sun, and Lu the one who was as quiet as the night. They were Alicorns, having the magical abilities of the three pony-races, Earth Pony, Pegasus, Unicorn, combined and their power were beyond any pony could ever reach. All though, that's not the only reason why they and they alone rule Equestria.

They were chosen by the Elements of Harmony to weld their holy power. Tia was chosen by the Elements of Honesty, Mercy, and Sorcery. While Lu was selected by the Elements of Bravery, Generosity, and Hope. With the Elements of Harmony, the sisters ruled and protected the land from any and all evil that came their way.

But one day, that all changed...

The ponies of the land favored Tia over Lu, believing that she was chosen by the sturdiest haft of the Elements. Therefore, she was the most powerful of the two sisters and Lu wasn't needed in the slightest. This favoritism was driven to the point where Tia was crowned as the official queen of the land. Jealously took over Lu, causing her to leave her Elements behind, along with her sister.

Tia tried to find her beloved sister, sending out search team after search team to bring her little sister back. None of them showed any result. Many years passed, Tia grew sick from her grief and pondered if she should even continue searching for her sister or just give up. Then, out of the blue, Lu came back. But she was far from the beloved sister Tia once knew.

She trotted through the castle, whispering to the darkness that followed shortly behind her. Once she made it to the throne room, where Tia could see her, her face said it all. She was cold, angry, and had an intense thirst for blood... Lu attacked her sister, using a spell that no pony had ever seen before. Hitting the young queen's left wing and turning it into pure glass. Lu pulled out a long sword made from Twilight as a red cosmic cloud swirled around the sword. She and the darkness lunged at Tia, both aiming for the newly formed glass wing. Tia barely dodged, only getting a scratch on her left back leg.

This was the begging of a battle that lasted for three days and four nights, ending many lives and reshaping the land they once protected. On the final night, Tia retrieved the Elements of Harmony. Years prior, the Elements of Harmony were used to transform Discord, the God of Madness, into stone until the end of time. Tia tried her hardest to avoid using them on her sister. But at this point, she had no choice.

With tearful eyes, she used the Elements of Harmony, a massive bean of colorful light swirled around her before aiming towards Lu. However, the beam didn't hit Lu, not even close. Against all the odds, Lu caught the beam with her own magic. Her eye, ears, nose, and mouth started to bleed as her spell mixed into the beam.

In utter awe at the sight, Tia barely noticed that the Elements of Harmony was slowly dying. Since the battle started, the harmony between the sister was fading, so did their connection to the Elements of Harmony... The Elements of Harmony dropped onto the ground, fully transformed into their hollow state. Tia crumbled, getting onto the field and begging for them to come back to life. With no such luck. Tia looked up at the sky where her once kind and loving sister was, gaining control over the beam she shot at her. She excepted her faith, preparing herself for the beam's impact. But instead of aiming the beam at her defeated sister, Lu had another idea.

Lu shot it into the sky, the beam hitting the moon with great force. Lu used all her power to carve a black outline of a head and neck of a unicorn. Once she finished the unbelievable feet, she fell to the ground not too far from Tia, weaken and wounded. Lu slowly got up, trotted slowly to her stunned sister who was unable to move. She stopped right in front of her, lowered her bleeding head inches from Tia's face and pointed toward the carving on the moon.

"Listen what I say and listen well, Queen Tia." Lu said coldly. "When the eyes of The Mare of the Moon open, I, The Nightmare Knight will return and finished what I started..."

"What is that...?" Tai stuttered sorrow and fear painted in her eyes.

"To chop your little head off and feed it to the wendigos."

Then, without another word, she turned around and walked away. Never to be seen again...

A thousand years and a lot have changed since then. Equestria grew in mass and number, harmony was made with several other races. Even a new kingdom was formed, ruled over by a young queen with her fateful husband on her side. Most ponies excepted the existence of the Mare of the Moon in their lives.

But the queen was still scared from that battle all those years ago and lived in fear of the day that her sister would return. And she was far from being the one. Most of the ponies in Equestria feared the Nightmare Knight, unable to imagine the horrible fate their queen would face if she'd returned. A brutal death that would bring the land into darkness.

For the Elements of Harmony themselves remained lifeless since that day. Any and all attempts of bringing them back end in failure. That was until one day, the Elements of Harmony was suddenly brought back to life by six little fillies, who got their cutie marks on the exacted same day at the exacted same time...

 _ **-End of Prologue-**_


	2. Chapter 1: Morning Dread

Queen Celestia hasn't even raised the sun when she woke up. She promptly slapped the silver clock that lay on the small wooden table next to her bed before it had the chance to go off. Making sure that the alarm wouldn't wake her little friend that slept in the small basket next to her bed. The purple mare yawned, gently getting out of the massive bed, tip-toeing across the elegant bedroom and toward her rather large closet.

She didn't need such a massive closet. In fact, she really didn't need any of the several elegant and luxurious items that were in her room. She was a simple mare, only needing her loyal friend and her endless collection of books. But where she lived, it was almost mandatory to have such expensive things at every corner.

Using her magic, she levitated a simple white blouse and a light gray vest, sluggishly putting them on before walking softly towards the white desk. Sitting on the purple velvet stool covered in lace, she put on a purple diamond pendant with a gray ruffle on the bottom of the collar if her shirt then stared into the massive mirror in front of her. Taking note of her messy mane and the dark bags under her eyes.

It was normal for her to look tired, most of the time she is. As long she can remember, she always suffered from Insomnia. Staying up till the light of dawn either studying or dreading the next day. Most of the time, this dread was only her social anxiety acting up, her brain overacting at the smallest chance of making a fool of herself in front of her mentor. But this time, there was an actual reason to worry.

Today was the Day of Welding. The day that she and five other ponies would get the Elements of Harmony. Her entire life was built around this event, ever since she got her cutie mark and one particular day at school.

She still remembered the shock, and joy she felt when Queen Celestia came to her first-grade magic class with a young maid. Levitating a purple star-shaped gem wrapped in cloth as she walked around the classroom as the maid followed shortly behind with a lock-box on her back, floating the gem close to a filly's face before going to the next one. She remembered how the gem lit up like a firework when the gem was close to her, instantly escaping Celestia's grasp slamming into her six-year-old-self chest and knocking her onto the floor. She passed out for a moment, only remembering the feeling a mixture of warmth and power before it quickly faded, and she opened her eyes. Queen Celestia and the dumbfound science teacher stood over her. Her teacher checking if she was injured in any way and Celestia putting the now animated gem into the lock-box.

That was the first and only time she saw the Element of Sorcery, the Element that she was chosen to weld. There was a good reason for it. She was too young and untrained to use such high power. Since then, she and her family moved into the royal castle under Queen Celestia's wishing. Becoming Celestia's student while her family works within the castle walls. Throughout the years, she studied and practice the top magic spells. Ranging to teleportation spells to lethal combat magic.

She was alone most of the time, making a habit of locking herself in her room and study whatever she can. The only interaction she had with ponies were Celestia, her family, few of the royal staff, and one other pony.

She looked away from the mirror and levitated the window next to her open. Leaning towards the window, she saw her. An orange unicorn was standing in on the castle-tower balcony, singing a sweet, heartfelt tune to nopony but herself. Her red and yellow mane flowed softly in the air as she put out the stars in the sky in small chunks.

Princess Sunset Shimmer, daughter of Queen Celestia. The one who's in charge of lighting the stars at dusk and putting them out at dawn. Celestia use to light up and put out the stars, along with raising and lowering both sun and moon. But ever since she adopted Sunset, she gave the job of working with the stars. She may not be Celestia's daughter by blood, but she'd proven herself to be as powerful as Celestia.

"Um, Twilight?" said a curious voice said behind her. Twilight quickly pulled herself back, so much so she fell backward onto the floor. The impact startled the lavender mare behind her and the purple and green dragon that was sleeping in the basket.

"Sorry!" shouted the unicorn, levitating Twilight off the ground and onto her hooves. "I didn't mean to startle you. I would have knocked, but the door was open."

Twilight sighed. "It's okay Starlight, I was just lost in thought." She stepped back onto the stool, glaring back at herself, she could feel the roughtail of her beloved companion brushing against her bottom hoof in passing. Starlight, feeling a bit awkward, fiddled with her brooch before looking out the window.

"Princess Sunset is putting out the star." She said pointing out the window, trying to small talk. "I haven't really seen anypony do that before. Maybe if we're lucky, we can see Celestia raise the sun."

Twilight gave her a small smile through the window. She wasn't surprised at the comment. Starlight became Celestia's second student only a couple of months ago. And even though she didn't know a whole lot about her, the one thing Twilight did know about her is that she sleeps in a lot. Contently being late to class and drinking an endless amount of coffee. So, it didn't surprise her that she hasn't seen such magic being perform. But something else did.

"Why are you up at this time?" Twilight asked, still staring her reflection. "I'd thought noon was your morning?"

Starlight chuckled. "Yeah, I know it's a little bizarre for me *yawn* to be up at this time. But Queen Celestia asked at the gala last night to join you guys when you get your Elements."

"Oh...Right."

"Um, are you feeling? You're looking a little bit pale."

Twilight sighed, feeling the weight of anxiety from last night coming back to her. No, not just last night. The whole week of pressure hit her all at once. Usually, she would just bottle it up and ignored it. Especially if some pony like Starlight is asking if she was alright.

"Um, I..."

"Is it the Nightmare Knight that's bothering you?"

 _She said it_. Twilight thought, staring at her hooves. _She'd addressed the black elephant in the room._

She gave Starlight credit, she was the only pony so far who had the guts to say it out loud. Especially since no pony even dares to mention her name at the gala. Maybe most of them were in denial about the whole thing, perhaps they wanted to forget for a night. Either way, it was difficult to ignore the glare that loomed over every pony from the night sky. One week ago, the Mare of the Moon opened its cold, lifeless eye onto the land. And that only means one thing... The Nightmare Knight is back, and most likely thirsting for Queen Celestia's blood.

"It's part of it..." Twilight said, looking at Starlight in the mirror.

Starlight stepped closer. "Then what is it then, if you don't mind me asking? You have the Element of Sorcery on your side, not to mention the other ponies who got the other-"

"That's what I'm worried about..."

Starlight tilted her head in confusion, so did the dragon on the floor looking at both of them. Twilight took a breath and turned to herself towards Starlight.

"What if they don't like me?"

Starlight mind froze for a second before speaking. "what do you mean?"

"What I mean is..." Twilight continued. "the Elements of Harmony can only work if every pony in harmony with each other. That's why Queen Celestia and The Nightmare Knight lost control of the Elements, cus their harmony broke. Right?"

"Right..."

"So, knowing this, I can't help but think that it might happen to us... What I know about them is little, I won't deny that. But what I do know that all five of them lived in Ponyville for many years. I mean, you saw them at the gala, they were closer than anypony I've ever seen. They worked off of each other so perfectly, socializing with every pony while I just stood in a corner and watch."

"Well, there was that Pegasus, the yellow one with her hair in a bun. She didn't seem to be the social butterfly type. In fact, she seemed to be more interested in the royal garden than anything else."

"Yeah, but she still seemed to get along with the others better than I'll ever be."

Starlight stood next to Twilight, placing a hoof on her shoulder. She rubbed it for a bit, nervously trying to come up a way to comfort her. She related Twilight's worries to an uncomfortable level, recalling past mistakes in her head that made her even more anxious. Causing a cycle that made it difficult to think. Finally, an idea popped into her head.

"Why don't we get some coffee?" Starlight awkwardly shouted, startling Twilight. "If not that, something to eat? That always makes me feel better."

Twilight stared at her for a moment before giving her a small smile. "Sure."

Starlight felt a wave of relief hit her softly, helping Twilight gather up the things she needed for the day ahead. Putting it all in a white saddlebag, Twilight put it on before turning to the purple dragon. "Come on Spike."

Spike smiled, jumping onto her back and wrapping his tail around her neck. Starlight trotted towards the door, thinking the different array of food she could have as she opened the door, Letting Twilight pass.

 ** _End of Chapter 1_**


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